You can copy and save the unique URLs from here so you can access it at any time from any browser in the event your blog is unavailable.

Error log entries and their severity

The WP Engine error logs provide you with a trace of how different areas of your site’s code interacts with itself, our server, and WordPress core.

NOTE: This section has technical information geared more towards developers. Plugins and themes do have the ability to add their own logs here as well, so if you see a log not identified here please consult your developer or your plugin/theme author.

[WPE Monitoring] function.curl_exec

Default PHP Function we’ve added to the error log to show which external API calls are exceeding 500ms; which will add to the total load time of a site and slow it down. This log is intended only for the WP Engine platform to read and is not intended for humans to read. We use this log to help monitor, evaluate, and optimize sites on our platform.

File Permissions

A permissions error in the error log is a PHP warning. You’ll see this error if a file is trying to be called and the permissions are incorrect. For example, if you uploaded content via SFTP and never reset file permissions via your wp-admin dashboard — both the permissions and the owner/group will be incorrect which will lead to the permission error. You’ll also want to check to ensure the file getting the error actually exists.

PHP Warning: file_put_contents(/nas/wp/www/cluster-1234/yourblog/wp-content/themes/badperms/lib/css/theme.css) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1242/yourblog/wp-content/themes/WFTDAtv/lib/less/lessc.inc.php on line 1418...

You could also see an error like this if a plugin or theme is trying to do something that’s not allowed on our platform or is trying to access a file/directory it shouldn’t have access to:

PHP Warning: file_put_contents(/nas/wp/www/cluster-2349/yourblog/wp-content/cache/autoptimize/autoptimize_b1b3a88cd5d8cfd4d1b5a716beef375a.php) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /nas/wp/www/common/production/php_prevent_flock.php on line 21...

[error] KILLED QUERY

Used to determine which queries of SELECT Statements have been killed and not executed by WP Engine due to the query length being over 16k characters; which is inefficient and should not be ran on a production database.

These only apply to Select statements, and not any other type of statements. If these queries need to be run, they should be done so on a local copy of the database that can be downloaded from any backup point in the User Portal. This can be resource intensive; which is why we’ve provided this log. Otherwise, simply shorten the query to resolve the error.

[error] LONG QUERY

Used to determine which queries of SELECT Statements could be optimized due to the character limit being over 1,024.

We have included it in the log to signify that the length of the query, which would be over 1,024 characters, is a Long Query and may be able to be optimized. We did not take any action on this query, it is just a notice to our customers. These only apply to Select statements, and not any other type of statements.

Nginx Profile Added

WPE API [success]: woocommerce Nginx Profile Added – This is not truly an error. With WooCommerce, there are certain caching exemptions that need to be put in place in order for it to function properly. This entry is stating that the nginx profile that contains the necessary cache exemptions has been successfully added to the environment, meaning that the cart and account functions will work as they should.

PHP Fatal Error

This is a critical error that can’t be recovered from, such as calling a function that doesn’t exist or there’s not enough memory that’s able to be allocated to the script. If you see a fatal error, it means that the execution of the script was terminated. You can see from the error what plugin/theme/script is causing the issue and in most cases you should be contacting the developer first. PHP fatal errors almost always come from incorrect code.

PHP Fatal error: main() [function.main]: The script tried to execute a method or access a property of an incomplete object. Please ensure that the class definition &quot;RealScoutColorScheme&quot; of the object you are trying to operate on was loaded _before_ unserialize() gets called or provide a __autoload() function to load the class definition in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1234/yourblog/wp-content/themes/navigator/style.php on line 18, referer: http://yourblog.com/wp-admin/...

Depending on the type of fatal error, a common troubleshooting for memory fatal errors is increasing the memory allocated to PHP. This doesn’t always do the trick, wso contacting your developer is always recommended.

PHP Notice

The script encountered something that could indicate an error, but could also happen in the normal course of running a script. It’s a non-critical error usually caused by an undefined variable or index, so the script is still doing something wrong but the error isn’t serious enough to cause the script to be terminated completely. These errors should still be addressed as they may be indicative of a bug causing problems elsewhere or in the future.

The best course of action is to contact your developer or if it’s specific to a theme/plugin, contact the corresponding author.

PHP Notice: wp_specialchars is deprecated since version 2.8! Use esc_html() instead. in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1234/yourblog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 2908...

PHP Parsing Error

Similar to a fatal error, the biggest difference is a parse error will occur before the script is executed. What this means is that syntax of the code is incorrect and it’s not able to be compiled. This will point to an issue with the code itself. It could be a missing character or an unexpected (unneeded) character/symbol that’s causing it, but you’ll be able to tell exactly which line on which file is troublesome from the output of the error. This will usually be a job for your developer or the author of the identified theme/plugin.

PHP Warning

Similar to a PHP Fatal Error in that the Warning shows a script that is malfunctioning, but PHP was able to recover from and the script was not terminated.
Not as serious as a fatal error, but these errors still need to be addressed because they could lead to more serious issues in the future. Just like the fatal error, you’ll want to contact the theme or plugin developer.

PHP Warning: fclose() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1234/yourblog/wp-content/plugins/hyper-cache/cache.php on line 253, referer: http://warningsandstuff.com/...

In the above case there’s nothing to fear. It’s just due to the WordPress core trying to get that advanced cache file, but it’s not included with our installations due to our own proprietary caching mechanisms. This specific error can be ignored, or you can add a blank file called advanced-cache.php to the wp-content directory.

[WPE Monitoring] function.session_start

Default PHP Function we’ve added to the error log to determine when sessions are resumed or opened; which is identified by either a GET, POST, or cookie.
Session data is saved in a serialized format which PHP retrieves and unserializes in order to populate $_SESSION.
This log is intended only for the WP Engine platform to read and is not intended for humans to read. We use this log to help monitor, evaluate, and optimize sites hosted with us

WordPress Database Error

You’ll see database errors when MySQL is overloaded. Typically, this is due to too many queries being run by multiple users or too many long queries being run at one time. In a case like this, the error message will point you to the offending plugin/theme/script.
Once the offending theme//plugin is located, ensure that the plugin or theme is completely up to date. If updating doesn’t resolve the issue, you’ll want to contact the developer to see about ensuring that queries run less frequently and are optimized. Sometimes enabling object caching can help as well, as hopefully the queries could then be cached.

WordPress database error You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ') LIMIT 0, 5 /* From [yourblog.com/?s=crossknowledge] in [/nas/wp/www/cluster-' at line 1 for query SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID FROM wp_posts WHERE 1=1 AND (((wp_posts.post_title LIKE '%'))) AND (wp_posts.post_password = '') AND wp_posts.post_type IN ('post', 'page') AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish') ORDER BY FIELD(wp_posts.ID, ) LIMIT 0, 5 /* From [yourblog.com/?s=crossknowledge] in [/nas/wp/www/cluster-1234/yourblog/index.php:17] */ made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), wp, WP->main, WP->query_posts, WP_Query->query, WP_Query->get_posts, referer:...

You can also get a database error if the syntax of a query is bad. Like trying to query a table that doesn’t exist as in the error above. When that happens, you will want to get in contact with your developer or the developer of the plugin/theme (if the error is specific to a plugin or theme) to ensure that the queries being generated have good syntax.

Internal Recursion Error

Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.

This error often means there is a 500 error occurring somewhere on the site. If you’re using a multisite, ensure the asset in question actually exists, as this may also reflect a 404.

Preventing possible attempt to enumerate users

Preventing possible attempt to enumerate users

In short, this is not an error but a sign that our firewall is functioning.

The long explanation is that occasionally “bad” bots scrape post information for author ID info and we are automatically preemptively blocking the request. The requests that are blocked when this error displays are not typically not targeted, but rather a wide sweep of WordPress sites probing for vulnerabilities. For example "GET /?author=4 HTTP/1.0" 403

Troubleshooting

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